Support scope and responsiveness

Understanding initial response time

Support scope

Support for billing and subscription management-related issues as well as technical break-fix issues is available at all support levels. Advisory, escalation and account management services are available at the Professional Direct and Premier support levels.

Products and services covered:

Microsoft Azure services released to General Availability and purchased from Microsoft are covered by all support plans.

Microsoft Azure Public previews are covered by all support plans.

Non-Microsoft technologies, when provided by Microsoft as part of an Azure product feature, are covered by all support plans, such as the Azure SDK and sample code for Python.

Support for services purchased through another channel (other than purchased online, for example, Enterprise Agreement) are governed by the agreement terms for that purchase.

Severity and responsiveness

Initial Response Time is the period from when you submit your support request to when a Microsoft Support Engineer contacts you and starts working on your support request. The Initial Response Time varies with both the support plan and the Business Impact of the request (also known as Severity).

Severity level

Customer’s situation

Initial response time 2

Expected customer response

Severity A

Critical business impact

Customer’s business has significant loss or degradation of services, and requires immediate attention. 3

Developer: N/A 1

Standard: < 2 hr

ProDirect: < 1 hr

Premier: < 1 hr

Azure Rapid Response: < 15 min.

24/7 access

When you select Severity A, you confirm that the issue has a critical impact on your business, with severe loss and degradation of services.

The issue demands an immediate response, and you commit to continuous 24/7 operation every day with the Microsoft team until resolution; otherwise, Microsoft may at its discretion decrease the severity to level B.

You also ensure that Microsoft has up-to-date contact information.

Severity B

Moderate business impact

Customer’s business has moderate loss or degradation of services, but work can reasonably continue in an impaired manner.

Developer: N/A 1

Standard: < 4 hr

ProDirect: < 2 hr

Premier: < 2 hr

Azure Rapid Response: < 2 hr

Business hours access 4 (24/7 available)

When you select Severity B, you confirm that the issue has a moderate impact on your business, with loss and degradation of services, but with workarounds that enable reasonable, albeit temporary, business continuity.

The issue demands an urgent response. If you chose 24/7 when you submit the support request, you commit to a continuous 24/7 operation every day with the Microsoft team until resolution; otherwise, Microsoft may at its discretion decrease the severity to level C. If you chose working hours support when you submit a Severity B incident, Microsoft will contact you during working hours only.

You also ensure that Microsoft has up-to-date contact information.

Severity C

Minimum business impact

Customer’s business is functioning with minor impediments of services.

Developer: < 8 hr 4

Standard: < 8 hr 4

ProDirect: < 4 hr

Premier: < 4 hr

Azure Rapid Response: < 4 hr

Business hours access 4

When you select Severity C, you confirm that the issue has a minimum impact on your business, with a minor impediment to service.

For a Severity C incident, Microsoft will contact you during working hours only.

You also ensure that Microsoft has up-to-date contact information.

1 Maximum severity for Developer support is Severity C. Severities A and B are not available with the Developer support plan.

2 Based on 24/7 in English for Severity A and B, and in Japanese for Severity A. For other languages and severities, local language support provided during local working hours. Local languages available are: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

3 Microsoft may downgrade the severity level if the customer is not able to provide adequate resources or responses to enable Microsoft to continue with problem resolution efforts.

4 For most countries, business hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during weekdays (weekends and holidays excluded). For North America, business hours are 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Pacific time, Monday to Friday excluding holidays. In Japan, business hours are from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM weekdays.